Supply and Demand and Physician Availability

Malpractice liability is often identified as a potential source of physician shortages — and common sense suggests that at least it could be, if it ceased to be economically intelligent to either become or stay an active physician. 

But this LA Times story explores another possible issue — medical schools maintaining flat enrollment while demand grows:

[Experts say that d]emand for doctors is accelerating more rapidly than supply.

The number of medical school graduates has remained virtually flat for a quarter century, because the schools limited enrollment out of concern that the nation was producing too many doctors. But demand has exploded, driven by population gains, a healthy economy and a technology-driven boom in physicians’ repertoires, which now include such procedures as joint replacement and liposuction.

(via Day on Torts.)